View from Mt. Tam

Ah, to be an innkeeper! To hold reign over a pastoral domain of hospitality, good cheer and the company of people who have a taste for life lived slow. A dream? Yes, but for the many innkeepers of West Marin a dream come true. Mandy Behbehani introduces us to the proprietors of the Blackthorne and Black Heron inns, Druids Hall, Olema Cottages and the Old Point Reyes Schoolhouse.

In Home, we stay in West Marin and visit the Seadrift hideaway of Richard Volk, who fell prey to Stinson Beach’s charms more than 50 years ago and with his late wife, Mari Ann, built their dream house there.

Journey takes us to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. Photographer and writer Alissa Everett reports back from the luxurious surroundings of the Biras Creek Resort, where the iguanas don’t bite but the cocktails do. And, go straight to GO if your idea of luxury and sand also includes a lot of neon. Somer Flaherty ventures into the unwilds of the Nevada desert, Las Vegas, and finds that betting on comfort there is never a gamble.

In an election year, politicians are everywhere. We have three of them in Conversation, which puts questions regarding Marin’s priorities to the Democratic state Senate candidates: Mark Leno, Carole Migden and Joe Nation. Dancing to a different tune, Lifestyle riffs with bass player Scott Carter Thunes of San Rafael, who played with Zappa, and Dialogue queries Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain about his life in Marin.

Also in this issue, FYI Community highlights Youth in Arts, the group behind San Rafael’s Italian Street Painting Festival—a must-experience community celebration of art; Looking Back explains the beginnings of Tam High; and Microclimate visits Muir Beach.

As always, our wish is for your good reading. Enjoy Marin Magazine, as we continue to celebrate this
extraordinary place!

Lisa Shanower, Publisher
Nikki Wood, Editorial Director
Jim Wood, Executive Editor

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